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Washington, D.C. (July 27, 2023) – The Center for Immigration Studies recently uncovered what appears to be deliberate participation in alien smuggling by the Department of Homeland Security. Todd Bensman, the Center’s senior national security fellow, revealed the facilitation of illegal entry of large numbers of aliens across the Rio Grande River. George Fishman, the Center’s senior legal fellow, joins Parsing Immigration Policy to examine the legal implications for the Biden administration as he detailed in a recent report.

If proven, these allegations would constitute criminal violations of the federal anti-alien-smuggling law, with the greatest culpability falling on the members of the Biden administration who came up with the scheme and ordered it carried out.

Fishman draws parallels between what he has dubbed “Rio Grande-Gate” and congressional Democrats’ investigation into the Reagan administration’s “Iran-Contra Affair”. He hopes that Democrats will treat the allegations against Biden’s DHS with the same level of seriousness.

Fishman also urges Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate this matter, given doubts that AG Garland’s DOJ could conduct a fair investigation. The next administration could also investigate, as the statute of limitations on most alien smuggling crimes is five years.

In his closing commentary, Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies and host of Parsing Immigration Policy, discusses a different potential courtroom drama involving the Biden administration. This week, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to stop Texas from putting up marine barriers along the Rio Grande to prevent illegal aliens from crossing into the U.S. and it’s likely that Texas will invoke the invasion clauses of the U.S. and Texas constitutions in its defense, representing the first time that issue would be litigated.